More than 50 people gathered at a reunion for former Birmingham school children who had life changing adventures at a cottage near Llanidloes.

Bryntail Cottage, which is located above Llyn Clywedog, has held strong links between Llanidloes and Birmingham for more than 100 years.

The oldest former pupil at the reunion on September 18 was 91-year-old Gordon Griffiths. He first visited Bryntail in 1946 when he was 16 years old and returns to the cottage to "keep the spirit of the place going".

"It was a release from wartime Britain," he said. "It was superb. We were lads from Birmingham where we had restrictions from the war. And that was the first time we were free; swimming in the river and walking down to Llani."

A £250,000 refurbishment project is expected to begin in March next year to make two listed cottages up-to-date for future generations of inner city children to enjoy the Welsh countryside.

Paul Marano is headteacher at Tile Cross Academy in Birmingham which will benefit from the project that is expected to be completed by late 2022.

"For us it’s got a huge legacy. The amount of history in this building is amazing and seeing all these people is outstanding.

"We’re an inner city school in Birmingham, 600 students, 40 different nationalities. We live in quite a deprived area and having something to access like this is going to change the lives of lots of students and we can’t wait to experience what this place can give."

Chair of trustees at the Bryntail Cottage Charity Neil Mackintosh said he is keen to re-establish relationships with the local community.

"It’s a massively rewarding task. It’s great to be part of something that’s thriving and means so much to other people and you’re continuing a legacy that is well over 100 years old.

"It is going to be a big deal for the kids that we work with and I’m really keen to re-establish relationships with Llanidloes and the high school because we’ve got two very different student cohorts who underneath it all are all teenagers."